The present invention relates to the separation of product from wrapping material in defective packages.
In the cookie and cracker industry, there are occasions when a malfunction in a production line causes product pieces or wrapped packages to be broken or otherwise rendered unusable. Product pieces damaged before packaging are normally recycled by grinding them to a meal and using the meal as an ingredient of the products produced.
When the product pieces are damaged after packaging, or when the package is damaged or improperly formed, it is common practice not to recycle the product because of the high cost of manually separating the product from the wrapping material. The rejected packages therefore must be disposed of at a considerable loss to the manufacturer.